Snowbound
by Athenaktt
Summary: COMPLETED! ShepWeir. During a research expedition, John and Elizabeth are snowbound in Feldara. Not only are they stuck on a alien planet for a week together, but it seems that one of the Feldarians has an interest in Elizabeth, which irks John to no
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** _After watching "The Tower" I figure it's time for Elizabeth to get some attention from some else other than John. It's only fair.Also thanks to Bluebanirgh and SallyLizzieBeta-ing the first chapter._

**Spoilers: **_After "The Tower" but before "The Long Goodbye"._

**Pairing:**_ Sheppard/Weir friendship with potential for more._

****

**Chapter 1**

"Almost feels like home," John said, stepping out onto the snow covered ground of Feldara. Elizabeth only gave him a perplexed look. "Before coming here, I was based in Antarctica," he reminded.

"Of all of the worlds you've been to, you pick the ice planet for me to come and have negotiations," she sighed and watched the steam from her breath dissipate in the air.

"It's not my fault that they have an Ancient outpost here," he said.

"An Ancient outpost that the Feldarians consider an _ancestral_ temple," she sighed again. She pulled her coat tighter around herself as she trudged on back towards the Stargate. "How are we supposed to convince them to let us do research in it without offending them?"

"That is your field of expertise," John said with a wink.

"I don't know," she said, pushing a loose brown curl back under her hood. "They didn't look too happy when we asked them to allow our scientists to hang around here for a couple weeks to do research."

"Maybe we could offer them something in return?" John suggested.

"Like what?"

"Heaters or maybe warm fleece blankets?" he said with cheeky smile.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "You are really no help when it comes to this."

"I'm just here to shoot the bad guys," he smiled and patted the P-90 hanging from his vest. "What are you doing?" He looked at Elizabeth to see her stooping on the ground and gathering some snow with her gloved hands.

"I was just wondering if the snow in this galaxy felt like the snow back on Earth," she said, packing the snow into a little ball.

"What difference is there? It's cold, wet, and white. It's snow," John said obviously. Elizabeth tilted her head as she looked up at him. "What? It's true," he shrugged.

"Thank you, Colonel Obvious," Elizabeth said and stood up again.

Suddenly, John felt something cold hit him in the side of his head. His touched the side of his head and found remnants of a snowball. He brushed his hand through his hair to shake out the snow, and glared at Elizabeth, who was giggling into her hands.

"Now what the hell was _that_, doctor?"

Elizabeth arched an eyebrow. "That, if you must know, was a snowball."

"I know it was a snowball, but _why _was I the target of that snowball?"

"Because what is the fun of making a snowball if you can't throw it at someone?" she said and started to pack another snowball in her hands.

"That is something I would do." John put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes. "I thought you were better than that."

"I am better...just not that much," she grinned deviously.

"That's it." He stooped down and started to make a snowball of his own, while Elizabeth quickly finished the one in her hand.

John released his snowball first, but Elizabeth ducked just in time, and threw her snowball hitting him in the chest.

He looked down at the crumbling snowball against his chest. "You throw like a girl!" he said.

At his comment she raised an eyebrow in reply and threw another snowball at him, missing him by an inch. "So what? You can't hit a girl with a snowball?" she egged him on.

John held his arm out like he was about to shrug, but instead he swung his arms back and threw another snow projectile at Elizabeth, which she luckily dodged in time. After several more unsuccessful attempts at pegging her, he finally managed to smack her in the face.

Instantaneously, he saw her hands come up to her face as she fell onto her knees. Afraid that he might have hurt her, he ran to her and knelt down beside her.

"I'm sorry. Are you all right?" he asked as he helped to brush away the snow from her hair.

Elizabeth did not reply immediately, since she was still recovering from the sudden coldness of a snowball to her face. As she wiped the snow from her face, she noticed the genuine concern and guilt written all over John's face. She decided to take this moment to her advantage. While he was leaning in closer to observe the damage, she used one hand, grabbed a handful of snow, and threw it in his face.

She could not help but laugh at the look of shock on his snow-laden face.

"All right, that's it," he said, but she had anticipated his revenge and started running.

Since running in the snow was never easy, she didn't get far before he caught up and brought her down to the ground.

Major Lorne cut their moment of fun short when his voice crackled through the radio.

"Colonel, we have gate activity," he said.

John and Elizabeth raised their heads up to look to the direction of the Stargate just in time to see the wormhole connect and two Wraith darts zip through.

"This is getting annoying," John muttered. Then he spoke into his radio. "Major, this is Sheppard. You guys know the drill. We can't let it get back to the Hive ship."

Elizabeth felt John's strong arms pull her up as he kept his eyes on the darts heading for the village they had just left. He held his gun up ready to fire, while she could hear the sound of distant gunfire from the others trying to take down the darts.

John searched the vicinity for a place where they could avoid the Wraith beams, but the area they stood at was bare, leaving them vulnerably out in the open. The best they could do was head towards the Stargate where back up would be waiting for the approach of the darts.

"Come on, let's get to the gate," he said grabbing on to Elizabeth's hand as they tried to run through the snow.

Just then, John heard the dreadful buzz of a dart looming behind them. He looked up to see the dart inching in on them and its beam ready to take new victims aboard. He quickly threw himself into Elizabeth to push her away from the path of the beam.

Moments later, they heard a loud crash where the dart landed.

"Colonel," Lorne's voice came through the radio again. "Please be advised. The second dart is heading towards your direction as well."

"Crap," he muttered to himself. "Come on, it's time to move again."

Before Elizabeth had a chance to pull herself together from the fall, she felt her body being pulled forward as John raced them towards the armed soldiers running in their direction.

As soon as they ran past the line of three soldiers, Elizabeth could hear the rapid firing of rifles behind her trying to shoot down the last dart. The buzzing of the dart came closer, and she turned her head to see its position. She was glad to see that the soldiers had managed to disable the dart, but she was not glad to see that the dart was headed for a collision course with them again. Now she knew exactly how Carson felt when he described how the dart almost crashed into him during Rodney's little 'duet' incident with Lieutenant Cadman.

Before Elizabeth had any time to think of which direction she should run, she heard John yell "Get down!" The next thing she knew, he had wrapped his arms around her waist and had pulled her down onto him to break her third tumble into the snow. As the dart flew over their heads, John instinctually used his body to protect Elizabeth from any flying debris when the dart collided with the ground.

"Are you all right?" John asked breathlessly as he looked down at Elizabeth.

"Not really," Elizabeth said lying on her back in the snow. She was breathing heavily, and tried to pass it off mostly as a side effect of running from the darts. But she suspected that her compromising position with John at the moment was not helping either.

"You can feel better later," John said as he stood up, holding his hand out for her.

"Now I can see why you love going off world so much, and why Carson dreads it," she said, taking his hand and brushing the snow off herself with her other hand.

"Doctor Weir, are you all right?" Major Lorne said as he approached the pair.

"Major," Elizabeth nodded, "I'm fine, thank you. Colonel Sheppard made sure I was safe by keeping me...close to him." She gave John a quick glance.

Major Lorne nodded and turned his attention to John. "Colonel, both Wraith darts have been disabled and the pilots are dead. We made sure of that," Lorne reported cryptically.

"All right, get Zelenka and his people to come and salvage the wrecks. As for the village..." John trailed off and looked over at Elizabeth.

"As for the village," Elizabeth continued where John left off. "I think we should go back and see what the damage is; maybe this might convince them to let us have access to their outpost."

"Village? I thought they were an underground city," the Major furrowed his eyebrows, perplexed.

"They have a village on the surface for trading purposes, but the majority of the Feldarians occupy the underground city," Elizabeth explained. "And I'm afraid a fair amount of people were topside to send us off. I think it is best that we go back and check on them, especially if they are our future allies."

"Understood, ma'am, sir" Lorne gave a quick salute and ran towards the Stargate to report his orders.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" John asked as they started to walk back towards the village.

"Most likely not," she said, making a face and looking at John.

"You're pretty sassy for someone I just saved," John said narrowing his eyes.

"And I thank you for it," Elizabeth smiled.

"You should, especially since I saved you even after I got a face full of snow," John scowled. "I think my nose is still frozen," he said, feeling the tip of his nose.

Elizabeth chuckled as she wiped off some snow that was still on her sleeves.

"Do you think that they might let us loiter around their village a bit longer, now that we sort of saved them from the Wraith?" he asked.

"I hope it proves something at least." Elizabeth said hopefully. "And now that we've figured out how to extract people beamed by the Darts it might put us in a more favorable light."

"Look, here comes pretty boy," John said as he noticed a group of people coming out to greet them as they neared the village. Leading the group was a man with dark blond hair and blue eyes. He was about the same height as John, but his skin, like most of the Feldarians, was pale since they stayed indoors due to the harsh weather conditions. Dolan was thought of by many to be a handsome man, but John thought that Dolan would look better if he got a tan.

Elizabeth gave John a sidelong glance. "Pretty boy?"

"Isn't he just there for decoration? He hardly said a word during the meeting. The Governor did most of the talking."

"That's because Dolan is the Governor's son and second in command, and he's hardly a boy. I think he's about your age, maybe even younger."

"Well, something must be wrong with him since he's still single."

"You're still single," Elizabeth pointed out.

"Because something _is_ wrong with me," John said.

"No kidding," she said rolling her eyes. "Besides, he did strike up some conversation while we waited for our meeting."

"Yes, conversation with _you_."

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at John's comment. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous."

"Jealous?" John scoffed, "Of what?"

"I think you're jealous of the fact that this time there isn't an alien princess for you to flirt and leer at."

"I admit I do flirt, but I do not leer."

"Doctor Weir," Dolan said with a relieved smile. "I'm so glad that you have not returned to your world yet."

"Actually, we were just about to leave, when the Darts came," she explained to Dolan.

"We disabled the two Wraith Darts before they got through the gate. They aren't going anywhere anytime soon," John added.

"We came back to see if you needed some help," Elizabeth said.

"My father was caught in one of the beams." Dolan said looking down at the snow-covered ground somberly. "With the technology you possess, is there any hope of having him returned to us?"

"I'm so sorry to hear that." Elizabeth's face filled with concern. "We will be trying our best to see if we can safely extract the Governor and others who may have been caught in the beams," she assured Dolan.

"Thank you, Doctor Weir," Dolan said taking Elizabeth's hand into his own in a thankful gesture, which did not escape John's notice.

"Now that the Governor is not around, who is in charge?" John asked.

"I will be," Dolan said, "but I hope this will only be temporary, and your people will be able to return my father to us safely as soon as possible."

"We will do our best, Dolan," Elizabeth assured him again.

"Again, thank you, Doctor," Dolan replied, his hand still holding onto Elizabeth's hand.

"I think we should be returning home." Elizabeth sincerely patted Dolan's hand in return and removed her hands from his hold. "If you need assistance, please do not hesitant to ask."

"What was that all about?" John asked as soon as Dolan was out of hearing distance.

"What?"

"The hand holding and stuff," John made some gestures with his hands.

"That is called diplomacy," she said mischievously, knowing that her answer would irritate him.

"Are you trying to get back at me for all the aliens that find me irresistible?"

Elizabeth scoffed. "Why would I want to get back at you? Girls just want to have fun."

"And what kind of 'fun' is that?" he said crossing his arms over his chest.

"That's for me know and you to never find out," she giggled at the appalled expression that crossed over his face. "Come on, let's go home," she said.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: **A quick thanks to all those who took them timeto review. They are always loved and appreciate.And another thanks to my beta SallyLizzie. Sorry, this chapter is kind of short. Next chapter should be much longer. Now onto the next chapter! _

**Chapter 2**

"Nothing like more broken spare parts," Rodney mumbled as he looked at the new Dart wreckage lying in the Atlantis hangar.

"Okay, Mr. McNegative, can we extract these people?" John asked, resting his hands on his hips.

"I'm surprised that every time you guys manage to shoot down these Darts they don't just spontaneously combust on landing," Rodney said.

"Can you extract them or not?" John crossed his arms over his chest to show his impatience.

"Of course we can." Rodney rolled his eyes.

"See, why couldn't you have just said _that_ ten minutes ago?"

"Gentlemen," Elizabeth interrupted as she walked into the room. "Please, extract whoever is stuck in there and call me as soon as you guys get them into the infirmary."

"Yes, ma'am," Radek said pushing up his glasses up with a finger and cradling a tablet in his arm.

She looked over at Radek, slightly confused by his sudden appearance. She gave each scientist a quick nod. "Thank you," she said and headed out of the hangar with John close behind.

John followed silently behind her as she made her way through the mazelike corridors back to her office, her attention focused on her palm pilot. He was about to say something several times, but changed his mind each time. Finally, she looked up from her palm pilot and turned to look at him.

"Say it," she said.

"What?" John asked, caught off guard.

"You've wanted to say something since we left the hangar." She shut her palm pilot and replaced the stylus in its slot. "Say it."

"How did you— I was standing behind— Do you have eyes in the back of your head?" he asked suspiciously.

Elizabeth smiled. "What is it?"

"You know you should take advantage of this," he said shaking his finger as he thought out loud.

"Advantage of what?" she furrowed her eyebrow in confusion at the sudden subject change.

"Of Dolan's little crush on you, especially _now_ that he's in charge." Elizabeth looked at John as if he was insane. "You should use this opportunity to get him to let us study that outpost. We might even find a ZPM," he added.

"Dolan is only governing Feldara temporarily."

"The more reason to ask him _now_. Use those 'diplomacy' skills of yours."

"I don't know," she shook her head and continued walking to her office. "I don't like the idea of using a man's affection to get what I want."

"What are you talking about? You do it all the time."

"Excuse me?" she looked at John, indignant by his accusation.

"Well… one day you hug a man. Then the next day you send him on a suicide mission to fly into a corona sphere. The day after that,you let him get taken prisoner on some planet. Not to mention you leave him in Meditation land for six months—"

"The suicide missions and the Olesian incident are all your own doing. As for Meditation land, like Ronon said, it was only a couple hours for us." John narrowed his eyes at her comment. "Besides, most of the situations you get into are all your own doing," she said matter-of-factly.

"I warned you from the very beginning that I could get us into all sorts of trouble," he grinned.

"Yes, you did," she rolled her eyes. "Little did I know, you were being literal."

John smirked. "So are you going to use your feminine charm and seduce Dolan into getting us a good deal?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because you have seduced enough people for the both of us, Captain Kirk."

"I _never _seduced anyone. They all seduced me first!" John retorted. Then his expression changed to a smirk. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous."

Elizabeth scoffed. "Don't you have something else to do?" she asked. "I could always ask Ronon to spar with you if have nothing to do."

John held up his hands in surrender. "No need to get violent. I'll leave, but you know I'll be back," he winked.

Elizabeth shook her head as she reopened her palm pilot and walked down the opposite corridor that John went down.

* * *

Elizabeth felt rather useless as she waited in the bustling infirmary for Carson Beckett to finish helping a patient. 

"Busy day?" Elizabeth asked, clasping her hands behind her back.

"Yes, quite," the Scottish man agreed.

"How are all our Feldarian patients doing?"

"Most are still a bit confused, but they'll be fine. By tomorrow most of them can return home."

"That's good news," she smiled. "How is the Governor?" She walked towards the bed where a thin elderly gentleman lay.

"He is fine as well, but he did have quite a fright when the Darts attacked. I'm surprised he didn't have a heart attack, especially at his age."

"Appearances can be deceiving," she said and thanked Carson before he went to attend to another patient. "Governor," she stopped by the Governor's bed and smiled. "I'm glad to see you safe and well."

"Doctor Weir," the elderly man said weakly. "I did not think I would see you or anyone else again. Thank you."

"There is no need for thanks, Governor. We are only doing what allies would do for each other," she assured.

"You consider us allies even though we've refused to give you access to our ancestral temple?" the old man asked.

"When it comes to the Wraith, we are all allies. The Wraith are a problem that plagues us all," she said.

"What is it that you hope to find in our ancestral temple?"

"We hope to find more information to better understand the Ancients, who are also our ancestors, and we hope that maybe we can find a stronger weapon to use against the Wraith."

"Have you found any such weapons in your explorations?" he asked skeptically.

"We have found many things in our explorations that have helped us better understand our ancestors and the people of this galaxy."

"Of course you would not reveal such things to us, at least not yet," the old man chuckled. "Doctor Weir, you are an intelligent woman. I wonder why a woman like you hasn't found a mate yet."

"Thank you, sir" she blushed. "I guess I've become too much of an adventurer for any man at the moment."

"I believe my son has a taken a liking to you," he said frankly. "After you and the Colonel left, Dolan was very insistent that I reconsider and allow you and your people to conduct your research. I'm surprised at his fondness for you, especially after such a short meeting."

"Well..." Elizabeth was not sure how to respond to this revelation. "I don't know what to say, Governor."

"Dolan my not be very adventurous, but he has compassion and is a good man."

"I'm sure he is," she said calmly and smiled to hide her discomfort at the turn of the conversation.

"I will let your team conduct your research at the temple only if you are present to supervise your team," the Governor said.

"Governor, I can assure you my people will be cautious and take every care not to destroy _anything_ while they conduct their research."

"_Only_ if you are present, Doctor Weir. Those are my terms," the old man stubbornly said.

This request was definitely something she had not foreseen. She had thought that maybe the Feldarians would have wanted some sort of weapons or minerals or supplies like every other civilized world they'd encountered, but the mere request of having her present was odd. Were they distrustful of her research team or was there another motive for this request?

"I'll have to think about it, Governor. I will let you know my decision before you depart tomorrow," she said, and left before the Governor got the idea of declaring her his future daughter-in-law.

* * *

"I'm back!" John announced when he stepped out onto the balcony outside of the control room. 

"Yes, you are," Elizabeth said.

"So what's up?" he asked taking his place standing next to her.

"The Feldarian Governor made me an offer."

"Is it an offer you can't refuse?" John said with a smirk.

"I can refuse it. We just won't get what we want." John gave her a puzzled look.

"Did he offer you Queen?" he teased.

"Well…"

His eyes widened. "Did he?"

"No," she finally said and smiled at the relief that crossed over his face. "He said that he would only let our research team into the temple if I was there to supervise."

"Really? That's it?" He raised his eyebrows skeptically. "There has to be something more. Are you sure he didn't offer you Queen?"

Elizabeth turned around, leaned back, propping her hands against the balcony rail, and looked at John.

"You would turn that down, right?" he asked.

"Turn down being Queen? I don't know. It's pretty tempting, and I might even get the guy too," she smiled mischievously.

John glared at Elizabeth and rolled his eyes. He had a feeling this would not be the last time she teased him about the "tower" incident. He was still kicking himself for bringing up the comment about "getting the girl." He remembered her being amused, but he never expected it to give her this much amusement.

"I'm going with you," he finally announced.

"I haven't even agreed to the deal yet," she said.

"You will, because you can't pass up a bargain like this even if it means putting up with a fan boy for a week in Winter Wonderland."

"Fan boy?" Elizabeth wondered now many other nicknames John had for Dolan. "Do I sense the green-eyed monster again?"

"Hey, I may have green eyes, but I'm no monster… unless you inject me with a retro-virus… besides, it's so obvious, Elizabeth. Dolan Senior wants you there so Junior can make his moves on you. It's kind of hard to hit on a woman when she's on another planet."

"So this is how the male mind works," she mumbled to herself slightly amused.

"Besides, the Wraith might drop in for a visit again, and I need to be there to protect you."

"Oh, is that what you were doing when you threw a snowball in my face yesterday?"

"You started it," he said immaturely.

"You could have been mature and not try to peg me."

"I'm a man. I don't have to be mature, and I'm going with you," he said stubbornly.

Elizabeth arched an eyebrow at John's comment and laughed. "Yes, you and Rodney and his research team are coming along with me. So dress warmly."


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: **Again, thanks to everyone who reviewed. I'm glad you are all enjoying the fic so far. So THANK YOU ALL! And thanks to SallyLizzie for being my Beta. _

**Chapter 3**

When they first arrived at the outpost, it looked like a white silo in the center of a treeless valley. Because of its mystery and age, the Feldarians considered the Ancient outpost a sacred place and called it a temple. No one really ventured out into the cold to visit the ancient structure; only a few very pious Feldarians would venture the cold once a year to be in the presence of their ancestors.

Inside the outpost, the first thing that caught everyone's eye was the Ancient weapons chair situated in the rear of the room, like a throne. The architecture was definitely Ancient in design and very reminiscent to the outpost they found in Antarctica. But due to its uninhabited and unattended condition, the front entrance, that once contained a door, was now only an open entrance, leaving the Atlantis research team to work under freezing conditions.

Everyone was bundled up in their warmest clothes and busily working in all corners of the outpost, while Elizabeth sat at a makeshift table reading reports on her laptop. Meanwhile, John stood behind her, reading over her shoulder, and kept himself warm by staying close to her portable heater.

"Is this what you do back at home, read reports all day?" he asked looking bored.

"Yes, read reports, go to briefings, read _more_ reports, and go to _more_ briefings. Occasionally, my routine is interrupted by _you_ getting into trouble," she replied and scrolled the screen down.

"Are you trying to tell me something?" He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yes, but apparently it's not getting through," she frowned, her eyes still concentrated on the screen. "Why don't you go and 'protect' me somewhere else?"

"The whole object of protecting someone means that I am _around_ them in case something happens."

"John, I'm not going anywhere." She pulled her eyes away from laptop screen. "I'll be sitting here for the rest of the day just like I have been for the last week."

"I bet as soon as I walk away from you, Junior is gonna walk in and 'check' on you," he said making quotations gesture with his hands.

"We've been here for half of the day and neither Dolan nor any Feldarian have come in to check on us. Could it be you're just a tiny bit paranoid?"

"We've been here for a week, and Junior has _always_ made an appearance to see you at least twice a day, and today being the last day we're here, he definitely _has_ to come. I know I would."

Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows. "John, please."

"Colonel!" Rodney yelled to John from the outpost chair.

"What, Rodney?" John replied annoyed.

"Could you please sit in the chair?" Rodney pointed to the empty chair next to him.

"What about Beckett?"

"Uh…" Rodney looked around the room. "We lost him."

"What?" Elizabeth and John exclaimed simultaneously.

"We didn't actually lose him. He went back for some sort of medical emergency," he said annoyed.

"What kind of emergency? And why wasn't I notified?" Elizabeth asked urgently.

"I'm sure it wasn't that much of an emergency. He was most likely making it up to get away with sitting on this thing." He pointed to the weapons chair.

"More like to get away from you," John said to Rodney.

"Yes, yes, yes," Rodney rolled his eyes. "Now could you please just sit in the chair?" he said hastily.

John looked over at Elizabeth. She only shrugged and urged him to oblige the scientist's request.

The tousled hair Colonel reluctantly walked towards the chair as Elizabeth followed.

"Have we found anything?" she asked Rodney as John sat down on the chair.

"Other than another depleted ZedPM, not much, but now that we've got the Mark-4 naquadah enhanced generator, we were able to discern that this outpost still has some drones left, but not much."

"Some is better than none," John said sitting in the activated reclining chair.

"Yes, having more drones is good, especially when we haven't found the Willy Wonka drone factory in Atlantis yet, but other than that, there is nothing really special here. I guess I can see why the Ancients left."

"So after a week, that's all we got?" John asked.

"Other than this planet is a big ball of ice and it is chapping my skin," Rodney said rubbing his mitten hands on his cheeks. "There is no reason for us to stay any longer. Other than to take what little drones they have back with us. Fortunately, your latest Captain Kirk fling got us a fair amount of drones." John shot an icy glare at Rodney.

"Well, today is the last day, so do what you can." Elizabeth wrapped her arms around herself as an icy breeze blew through the room. "Being here for a week makes me forget how it feels to be warm."

"I could use some nice warm coffee about now," John said and looked around the chair as if waiting for something to pop out.

"Colonel, it didn't work in the Jumper with the turkey sandwich, and it isn't going to work here with the coffee," Rodney said rolling his eyes.

"How do you know?" John glared at Rodney.

"Because this is a weapons chair, not a coffeehouse."

As the two men continued bickering, Elizabeth noticed Dolan enter from the main door, and left them to greet him.

"Dolan, how are you today?" she said with a smile.

"I am well. I would have come sooner to see you, but I was delayed. Is it too cold in here?" he asked as he noticed Elizabeth hugging herself.

"It's a bit on the cold side, but we'll manage. We have for the past week. I think I just need to move around a bit, but thank you for your concern," she said.

"I think another storm is about approach. Today does seem much colder."

"You mean you can tell the difference?" Elizabeth rubbed her hand up and down her arms rapidly.

Dolan smiled. "I thought you might be cold, so I brought you this." He held out a container to her. "It is a Feldarian brew that we drink often to keep our bodies warm."

"Is that coffee I smell?" John said coming up behind Elizabeth, leaving Rodney with an empty chair again.

"Dolan was kind enough to bring us some Feldarian brew to warm us up," she informed John as she took the container and cup from Dolan's hands.

"All of us?" John said eyeing the small container in Elizabeth's hands.

"Yes, Colonel, for all of you," Dolan said and gestured to several more Feldarians entering with larger containers along with some food.

"Oh, good," John said. "I'm usually not one to share things."

"John," Elizabeth interrupted, "could you please put this on my desk?" she asked and handed him the beverage Dolan had given her. John reluctantly complied with her request, and kept an eye on Dolan and Elizabeth as they conversed.

"Dolan, thank the Governor for me. This was definitely not necessary, but greatly appreciated. The hospitality of the Feldarians has been wonderful for the past week," she said.

"This is the least we can do for your people since you've saved my father and many others lives. Also my mother insists that you are much too thin and must eat more."

"So she tells me each time we meet," Elizabeth chuckled.

"She doesn't mean anything by it."

"Of course, it's apparently something that mothers in every galaxy do."

"Doctor Weir, you do not know how happy your arrival in Feldara has made us. Not only are we thrilled to have allies like you, but if having your research team here can help benefit us, you would have done our people a great deed.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," John said returning to his place next to Elizabeth. "From what we've gathered so far, there isn't much left."

"What does the Colonel mean?" Dolan inquired.

"This is no doubt a place of the Ancients, but we haven't been able to find much of anything that can be useful," she explained. "Other than several drones that can help destroy a couple Wraith darts if they happen upon your planet."

"And not to mention the power source that powers this place is completely depleted," John inserted.

"Does this mean you will be leaving soon?" Dolan asked.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, today is our last day. We should have everything removed from here by the end of the day. We wouldn't want to encroach on your hospitality more than necessary."

"But your presence is not an inconvenience. We very rarely have any visitors," Dolan assured her. "And in fact, we are allies now. So you will _never_ been an inconvenience to us."

"That is true, but this place is a sacred temple to your people, and we wouldn't want to linger and disrespect your people's beliefs for our research for too long."

"I admit when I saw the Colonel sitting in the ancestral throne I was shocked to see such desecration to such a revered object in the temple," Dolan said. "It is a good thing our harsh weather keeps most of our citizens underground. The elders would not approve."

"That is why we have decided to complete our research as soon as we can. We don't want any misunderstanding to compromise our newly formed alliance," Elizabeth said.

"I see," Dolan said disappointedly.

Then a warmly dressed Feldarian came running hurriedly through the outpost entrance. "Dolan! Dolan!" he cried. "The Wraith have returned!"

Just then Major Lorne came in on their radios.

"Colonel, we have gate activity. Three Darts just came through and are heading towards the city."

"Copy that," John said into his radio. "Looks like the search party for the last two Darts is here," he said to Elizabeth and ran towards the Ancient chair. "Rodney, is the chair still powered up?"

"Of course it is, I wasn't done yet when you—"

"All right, shut up," John interrupted him and sat down on the chair. Immediately the chair lit up and reclined. Elizabeth watched as he sat in the chair concentrating.

John concentrated and activated the drones with his mind. Moments later the roof above them opened up exposing the clear cold sky of Feldara. Everyone moved away from the opening roof, as the snow that had gathered upon it fell into the room. When the roof was completely retracted, in the center of the room, a circle they previously hypothesized as remnants of a decorative fountain, opened up and several squid-like drones flew out through the open roof.

In his mind, John could see the drones flying out into the open air. He could see the Wraith Darts racing towards the city. He sent several drones to track the first Dart he saw, and in a blink of an eye, the Dart was a ball of flames in the air falling swiftly towards the snow**-**laden ground. John quickly switched his focus to the last two Darts. They split off into different directions to try and lose the drones, but the several drones John sent also split into different directions chasing after them. One of the Darts continued to race towards the city, but before it reached the outskirts of the city, the drones sped up and collided with the Dart, causing a brilliant explosion in the cloudy sky.

"Two down, one more to go," John said to himself and concentrated all his efforts on the last Dart. The Dart made an attempt to evade the drones, but no matter how much evading the Dart attempted, John kept the drones locked onto it, until finally the drones caught up with it, and the final Dart joined its fellow Darts burning on the ground.

When the last Dart was destroyed, the blue light of the chair turned off and the chair straightened as John got out of the chair.

Elizabeth came up to John. "I take it everything went well," she said with relief when she saw the smile on his face.

"Now we know that the chair still works," he smirked.

"Yes, we know the chair works, but now there is _nothing_ left," Rodney complained as he looked at the tablet computer in his arms.

"There are still some drones left. I didn't use them all." John walked up and looked over Rodney's shoulder at the computer. "See, there are still three left," he pointed to a number on the screen.

"Yes, only three left. Why don't we just name them Alvin, Simon, and Theodore?" Rodney snarked.

"Rodney, they are inanimate drones, not chipmunks," John said.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and sighed as the two men started to bicker and banter with each other again.

"The city is safe again?" the Feldarian who brought the news asked her.

"Yes, the city is safe again," she replied.

The Fedarian nodded in relief.

"Do you know if they will return, Doctor?" Dolan asked.

"I'm sorry. I do not know," she replied shaking her head. "They may come again or they may not. But it looks as though as your people have not suffered as badly as others we've come across."

"I believe we survive because our harsh weather makes it difficult for them to cull us. But they are still a plague to our people."

"I guess the cold weather is a blessing in disguise then," Elizabeth said.

"I guess you can put it that way," Dolan smiled. "Since today will be your last day, will you please stay and join us for a banquet in the city, in honor of our new alliance?"

"Banquet? I'd love a nice dinner," John said appearing next to Elizabeth again.

Elizabeth gave John a look. She wondered when he had finished annoying Rodney.

"Yes, of course, Colonel." Dolan nodded in the direction of John. "We are extending this dinner invitation out to you, as well. Since you have saved our city from the Wraith once again and my father would like that very much," Dolan said.

"Oh, would he?" He glanced over at Elizabeth, who was trying not to roll her eyes at him. "Well, I'd like that too."

"Excuse me, but I must return to the city to see if anything has happened from the surprised appearance of the Wraith. I will see you both this evening." Dolan bowed slightly and left with his fellow Feldarian.

Elizabeth stood in place and looked at John with her arms crossed over her chest.

"What?" John asked. Elizabeth remained silent. "You were going to say yes, right?"

"That's not the point," she finally said.

"Then what is the point?" He asked as he walked over to her makeshift desk and poured some of the Feldarian brew into a cup.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I'll be glad to go home so you can _stop_ protecting me for once," she said and took the cup he was about to drink from his hand.

"I'm hurt," he said, looking at his empty hands confused that the cup he just had was missing. He shrugged and poured himself another cup.

"Next time, I'm bringing either Major Lorne or maybe even… Colonel Caldwell," she said mischievously and sat back in her chair.

She wrapped both of her hands around her cup and felt the warmth of the brew permeate into her hands. She took in a deep breath of the spice filled brew and lightly blew on it before taking a sip.

"Apparently, destroying three Wraith Darts and saving your life several times in one week isn't enough," John said.

"No," she said dismissively and typed a few keys on her laptop.

"May I ask why?"

"Because you're special," she said with a smile.

"Okay…" John knitted his eyebrows in confusion. "I'm going to go and protect you on the other side of the room," he said and walked towards the table where the food provided by the Feldarians was laid out.

Elizabeth shook her head and took another sip of her beverage and continued reading her reports.

* * *

For the banquet, the Feldarians went all out for their guests and served their best traditional dishes. John and Elizabeth were their guests of honor and sat next to the Governor and Dolan. John enjoyed the dinner by letting Elizabeth handle all the polite chitchat while he ate to his heart's content. Since Elizabeth spent most of the time speaking to the Governor and Dolan, John took the obligation to keep Elizabeth's plate full of food by putting on spoonfuls of the different dishes that were being passed around. He figured if she did not finish it, he could eat it later, but to his surprise, Elizabeth ate most of the food he put on her plate. Even though he swore he hadn't seen her stop talking to take a bite.

"Governor, I thank you for inviting us for these wonderful Feldarian dishes," Elizabeth said when they finished eating dinner.

"You may return whenever you like to visit and sup with us again, Doctor Weir," said the Governor.

"Thank you," Elizabeth said. "The food was just delicious. I don't think I could make anything as appetizing myself."

"If you like, I can teach you how to make them yourself." The Governor's wife entered the room with another dish and placed it in front of John and Elizabeth. "I'm sure as busy as you are as a leader; you will surely find time to prepare meals for your husband," she said and sat took her seat next to Dolan.

John nearly spit out his food when he heard the woman's comment, but his eyes immediately glanced over to Elizabeth since he was curious to how she was going to get out of this "diplomatic" conversation.

"Of course, ma'am, if there is time I would gladly like to learn how to make these wonderful dishes. As for preparing dinner for a husband, that is still very much in the future."

"The future doesn't seem too far for you, Doctor, especially, when you are acquainted with so many exceptional men," the older woman said glancing at her son then at John. "Did you like the food as well, Colonel? There is plenty more if you like," she asked John, who had just popped a piece of bread in his mouth.

John quickly swallowed the food in his mouth and choked out a "Yes, very delicious," and "I'm quite full, thank you."

Elizabeth suppressed a chuckle and glanced at her watch. "I hate to just eat and leave, but we really should be returning home," she said to their gracious hosts.

"I understand, Doctor. A leader can not be away from her people for too long," the Governor nodded understandingly.

"Wait!" Dolan suddenly exclaimed after speaking to someone, who had entered unnoticed into the room. "You can not leave!"

Instinctively, John's hand went to his side arm. Elizabeth noticed this and put her hands on his arm for him to wait.

"Why not, Dolan?" she asked.

"You remember how I told you that the weather in Feldara is harsh and unpredictable And that it felt like another storm was coming?"

"Yes, of course," she nodded.

"I've just received word that a blizzard has approached. You wouldn't make it to the Ancient Ring without freezing to death," Dolan explained.

"So we're stuck here?" John looked hopelessly at Elizabeth. "Not that your hospitality hasn't been great, but—"

"I am afraid so, Colonel," Dolan said.

"Do not fear, Doctor. You can stay in the room you occupied in the past week, and we would be glad to have you both stay until the storm ceases," the Governor's wife assured them.

"I guess it couldn't hurt to stay the night," John shrugged and looked over at Elizabeth.

"It might not be a night," Dolan quickly said. "I have seen blizzards that have lasted weeks before."

"Weeks?" Elizabeth asked surprised. She knew that was not impossible especially from the condition of this planet. She was surprised they were lucky enough to have a week respite of snowfall to do their research. But she was disappointed at this news since she was ready to return to Atlantis to thaw.

"I'm sorry," Dolan said sympathetically.

"There is no need to apologize. It is not your fault," she said to Dolan. "I guess we will have to encroach on your hospitality a bit longer," she said to the Governor and his wife.

"This is no problem at all, Doctor Weir," he said to Elizabeth. "Dolan, please take our guest to their rooms. It has been a long day for them. They must be in need of rest."

"Again thank you, Governor," Elizabeth said.

John gave Elizabeth a forlorn look as they exited the dining hall. But Elizabeth only shrugged and followed Dolan as he told her about one of the worse storms in their history.

John rolled his eyes as he eavesdropped on their conversation. At least someone was happy for their unfortunate predicament. He was sure he saw a sparkle in Dolan's eyes when he told them about the blizzard. Alas, they were stuck here until the blizzard ended. The next few days were going to be interesting, he thought to himself.


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: **I'm such a dork. I updated forgetting to add a short note. Again thanks for all the nice reviews. I still love them. ;) This is a short chapter, because it just felt right to leave off where I did. But I guarantee you the next chapter will be twice as long because of this. Thanks again!_

**Chapter 4**

John could not sleep. The Feldarians had given them the same rooms that they occupied last week, and even then he could not sleep comfortably.Then again Rodney would always come over and complain about how the mattress was hurting his back, which also prevented him from getting any sleep. At least this time, he wouldn't have to worry about Rodney wanting to play a game of chess; sincehe and everyone else was back at home all nice and warm.

He never really liked staying overnight on an alien planet. Especially after incidents where alien princesses tended to visit his quarters with missions of seduction for his genes. Ever since _that_ incident, he was always a bit paranoid when he had to stay overnight on another planet. At least Elizabeth was in the room across from him, he thought. He could always run for Elizabeth's room if anyone surprised him in the middle of the night.

He played around with his radio and thought about contacting Elizabeth with the radio to see what she was up to. But he changed his mind and lay down on the bed instead. Then he started wondering if he had heard of cases where a man came and seduced a woman. Then he started to wonder if Dolan was the type of person to do that. Then he wondered if Elizabeth would allow herself to be seduced by someone like Dolan. He had to admit, Dolan was a rather handsome man; despite the fact that John thought that he was a pansy. Then again pretty much any man who wasn't military seemed like a pansy to him, but of course, he kept that thought to himself when he was around Rodney. But there was something about Dolan that bothered him. He was too nice. In his experience, when people were too nice, they always had some hidden agenda.

As he lay there, he thought he heard some movement outside his door. When he saw a shadow of someone passing by from the crack under his door, he got out of bed, walked towards the door, and carefully pressed his ear against the door to listen.

He heard several muffled voices and was sure one of them belonged to Elizabeth. He wondered who would be in her room so late in the evening. He pressed his ear against the door again and tried to listen in, but he only heard silence. Either the visitor had left, or… He decided to try to listen in a little bit longer.

* * *

A single bright orange flame danced and flickered on the candle in the room. Last week, Elizabeth had her laptop to occupy her nights with Solitaire, but this time she only had a single candle as entertainment. She let out a breath and watched the flame flicker. She watched as a small puddle formed beneath the flame, eventually overflowing and a drop of melted yellow wax streamed down along the side of the candle drying halfway down the shaft. 

Every now and then, she would touch a drop of the melted wax with the tip of her finger, and feel the burn of the hot wax on her fingertips as she squeezed her fingers together, imprinting her fingerprints in wax.

Just as she began rolling the piece of wax between her fingers into a ball, she heard a quiet knock on her door. Earlier, Larin came to her door with extra blankets sent by the Governor's wife. Since she wasn't tired, she tossed the blankets on the bed and sat back down to play with the candle. The soft knock came again.

As she started towards the door, she wondered who else would visit her so late in the night. This time the knock was a little stronger.

She put her head next to the door. "Elizabeth?" She heard a muffled whisper on the other side.

There was only one person on Feldara that called her that and that person was supposed to be _asleep_ in the room across from her.

She opened the door. "John?"

"Oh, good, you're awake," he said as he stepped into the room before Elizabeth had opened the door completely. He walked into the dark room and noticed the untouched bed. "Why are you still up?"

"I couldn't sleep," she said closing the door.

"Let me guess, you got use to falling asleep to the sound of the ocean," he smirked. "I brought you some blankets." He showed her the blanket draped over his arm.

Elizabeth smiled and sat down on the bed. "Larin already gave me some." She pointed to the neatly folded pile on her bed. "So why are _you_ still up?"

"Well, I guess I'll keep this then," he pouted. "Anyway I couldn't sleep either." He crossed his arms and leaned against the door. "Never really can when I'm on an alien planet."

"Afraid of uninvited late night guests?" Elizabeth teased.

"Aren't you?"

"No, not really," she shook her head. "Not many women want to seduce me for my Ancient genes."

"That's because you don't have the Ancient gene."

"Precisely."

"What about Dolan? What if he came here in the middle of night saying he couldn't sleep another wink without seeing you?"

"He hasn't done that, and I highly doubt that he will," she rolled her eyes. "He may have a thing for me, and the Governor may want to make me his daughter-in-law, but—" She brought her hand up to cover her mouth as she yawned.

"Whoa, whoa, back up. Daughter-in-law?" John looked bewildered.

"You said so yourself that Dolan has a crush on me."

"Yeah, but I didn't realize he'd want to _marry_ you." Elizabeth immediately narrowed her eyes at him. He suddenly realized what he had just said. "Not that anyone _wouldn't_ want to marry you…" he quickly added. "I mean you're smart, attractive…Look, my point is, I didn't realize Junior was thinking marriage already."

"I don't think it was Dolan that instigated this. It was more on the part of the Dear Ol' Dad and maybe even Mommy Dearest."

"What, can't wait to have grandkids?" he said with a sour face and started pacing back and forth.

Elizabeth sat on the bed and watched John's shadow pacing the room on the wall, but his pacing back and forth was starting to make her head spin. "John?" she said calmly. "Can you please stop pacing back and forth and sit down? You're giving me a headache."

"Sorry," he apologized and sat down on the bed next to her. He brushed his hand through his hair and looked at her. He watched as she moved herself further onto the bed allowing her to prop her feet on the bed.

"This really bothers you, doesn't it?" she asked with amusement and hugged her knees.

"Doesn't it bother you?"

"You're bothered enough for the both of us," she said.

"I am only doing my duty to protect you."

"John, there are times when I need protecting, but when it comes to things like Dolan, I'm sure I can handle myself," she assured him. "But I appreciate the concern."

She rested her chin on her knees as she watched him sitting on the edge of her bed. He looked back at her and she only shrugged her shoulders as if to ask "what?"

"What would you do if a semi handsome man came knocking on your bedroom door in the middle of the night?" he finally asked.

"It would depend on what he wanted," she said playing along.

"Aside from emergencies," he rolled his eyes.

"Well, I let _you_ in," Elizabeth pointed out.

"That's different. I couldn't sleep, and I'm your bodyguard. So what would you do?" he asked, returning to the subject at hand.

"If I knew him, I guess I'd hear him out before shooing him off to bed."

"What? No sweeping you off your feet and having a night of passion?" he asked sheepishly and waited for Elizabeth's reaction to his absurd question.

Elizabeth blinked a couple times and gave him a blank look. "I never knew my ranking military officer read romance novels."

"I don't read romance novels," he protested. "That is basically what is written in all the blurbs on the back of the books." Elizabeth gave John a skeptical look. "Anyway that isn't the point."

"Then what is your point, John?"

He thought for a moment."No point, really," he said with a nonchalant shrug. "I was just curious how you would react if some guy came in the middle of the night to seduce you."

"Really? Well, I've never been in that situation before, so I wouldn't know."

"Hypothetically," he said rolling his eyes.

"I see, hypothetically," she said suspiciously and crawled towards the pillows at the head of the bed to lie down. "If this 'guy' said that, I would be flattered and kiss him," she said facetiously.

"Really?" John furrowed his eyebrows and turned to see Elizabeth playing with the shadows of her hands on the walls.

"That is if I _liked_ the guy, of course." She stopped playing with her fingers and rested them on her stomach.

"What if you _didn't_ like the guy?"

"I'd say thank you, I'm flattered, and good night," she said in between a yawn.

"That's it?" He asked lying down on the bed next to her to observe her expressions.

"Maybe if he was really hot, I'd kiss him too," she smiled.

"You're not going to give me a straight answer, are you?"

"Not tonight."

He turned his head to look at Elizabeth and saw that her eyes were closed but a smile was on her lips.

"You look very relaxed," he commented.

"Hm…" she replied drowsily. "It's not often that I'm stuck off-world in a pleasant situation."

"Pleasant? We're stuck in a blizzard. But I have to admit, from past experiences, this _is_ a lot better."

"Hm…" she replied again and shifted to lying on her side.

"Usually, when I'm stuck staying overnight somewhere, the next day I have to go hunt some local monsters or something. It's like we've become the Pegasus Wraith Busters.'Who you're gonna call? Wraith Busters!'"

When he did not hear any response from Elizabeth, he was sure that she had fallen asleep. He brushed aside a brown curl that fell across her face, and used the extra blankets he brought to cover her, and he lay back down and watched her sleep. He had never seen her asleep before, and she looked comfortingly serene and beautiful. John did not know how long he watched her sleep, but before he realized it, he had fall asleep as well.


	5. Chapter 5

**_A/N: _**_I'm sorry this update took longer than I planned, but it's finally done. Again thanks for all the reviews! And thanks to my beta SallyLizzie. So I bring you all more fluff. Thanks again! _

**EDIT:** Ah, how much I hate thee. Sorry for the previous formatting error. Someone pointed out to me how some of the words were smushed together. Yikes. Hopefully that's all fixed now.

**Chapter 5 **

The next morning, Elizabeth pulled the blankets around herself tighter and snuggled closer to the large warm object that was lying next to her. She wasn't sure what it was nor did she care. She was comfortable. She thought that maybe Sedge had climbed up onto her bed, but she was too sleepy and too comfortable to dwell on that thought.

Just as she was falling back to sleep, a soft knock came from her door. Elizabeth wondered who would bother her at this hour. She figured it was probably John and hoped that if she ignored the knock, he would go away. She snuggled closer to the warm body next to her and tried to ignore the knock as it persisted. Suddenly, the comforting warmth next to her moved and was gone.

She was displeased by the sudden lack of warmth, but only wrapped the blankets around herself tighter. Then she heard someone open her door.

"Colonel Sheppard?" a soft female voice said in surprised. "I'm sorry. I thought this was Doctor Weir's room."

Elizabeth's mind snapped awake. Colonel Sheppard? She quickly tried to remember what happened the night before. Was she in John's room?

"Uh…" John uncomfortably brushed his hands through his hair. "No, you've got the right room, Larin." He glanced back to see if the knocking had woken Elizabeth. "She's still sleeping. Did you want to leave a message?" he asked awkwardly.

John had said she was in her room. Then why was he in her room so early in the morning? Was he the warm body she was snuggled so comfortably next to the whole night? With these questions running through her head, Elizabeth's mind was now wide-awake, but her body had yet to catch up.

"I just wanted to let you both know that breakfast will be served soon," Larin said, "and to bring this." She held up a basin of warm water along with a towel.

"Thank you," he said taking the basin from Larin. "I'll let Doctor Weir know about breakfast and give her this." He closed the door softly and walked across the room to set the basin and towel on the table. He went back to the bed and carefully sat down. He glanced over at Elizabeth and noticed that her eyes were partially open.

"Good morning."

Elizabeth sat up on the bed rubbing her eyes. "Did you sleep here last night?"

"Yeah, sorry, kind of dozed off," he said sheepishly.

"Who was at the door?" she asked with squinted eyes

"Room service."

"Room service?"

"Larin came to tell us breakfast would be served soon." John sat on the corner her bed and observed Elizabeth brushing her hands through her messy curls. "Are you mad?"

"Mad about what?" She blinked a couple of times trying to wake herself up.

"About me crashing here last night…"

"No," she shook her head. "It's not like I lost any sleep because of you."

"I know," he said smirked. "I noticed you were sleeping very… comfortably."

Elizabeth felt her face grow hot at the memory of her snuggling up to his warm body earlier and quickly turned her face away from him.

"Uh… Larin also brought a basin of water for you to wash up. Anyway, I guess I'll go back to my room so you can do whatever you ladies do in the morning," he said and departed.

When she heard the click of the door shutting, she buried her head in the pillows. She took a deep breath and found that there was his faint scent lingering on the sheets. She smiled when she identified the scent to be his Aqua Velva aftershave, but her smile quickly faded when she remembered their awkward exchange only moments earlier.

She groaned and finally got out of bed and shuffled towards the water basin. She submersed the hand towel into the water, wrung it out, and cleaned her face with it. The warm water was refreshing, but when she looked down at her outfit, she wished she hadn't fallen asleep in her clothes. Now her red shirt and grey khakis looked wrinkled and even less flattering. However, she didn't have a change of clean clothes, so wrinkled would have to do. She ran her figures through her hair and grabbed her sneakers.

As she slipped on her sneakers, there was a knock on her door. She froze. She hoped to God it wasn't John. She wasn't ready to see him yet, because she knew he would not let her live last night down. This was probably karma catching up on her for teasing him mercilessly for the Tower incident.

She groaned and finally went to open the door. To her relief it was Dolan, but her relief was short lived when John exited his room at that moment.

"Good morning, Doctor Weir, Colonel." Dolan greeted them. "I was on my way to the dining hall and came by to see if you both were ready."

"Good morning, Dolan. I believe we are both ready," she said.

Before Dolan could get another word out, John clasped his hands together and said, "Well, I'm starving. What's for breakfast?"

* * *

John stirred the bland porridge in the bowl in front of him and grimaced slightly as he watched the Feldarians around him happily eating the morning sustenance he referred to as goop. He glanced through the corner of his eye to look at how Elizabeth was handling the situation. As he expected, Elizabeth handled the goop better than him. She even managed to take a few bites of the bland porridge without make a face.

"I hope the accommodations we have were comfortable for you," the Governor said.

"And I hope the extra blankets I sent you warm were enough," the Governor's wife added.

"The room and blankets were very comfortable and warm, thank you," Elizabeth assured the pair.

"How about you, Colonel?" the older woman asked at John.

"The accommodations were warm and snuggly," John said cryptically and snuck a glance at Elizabeth from the corner of his eye.

"Snuggly?" Dolan asked puzzled.

"He also means they were very comfortable," Elizabeth quickly explained and shot John a look. He feigned ignorance and ate a mouth full of porridge.

"I hate to be the barer of bad news, but the blizzard has not passed and is still raging on the surface," the Governor reported. "I know it is hard to believe when we feel so safe in our underground havens."

"Yes," Elizabeth agreed. "This place is quite impressive."

"Indeed," Dolan said. "Historical documents state that these underground havens were built by our ancestors."

"But why build an outpost on an ice planet?" John asked.

"Feldara was not always like this," the Governor said. "There have been records found that our ancestors lived in lush lands that yielded plentiful harvests. But something happened that changed the weather conditions of the planet. And the knowledge of what that catastrophe was has been lost to us."

"Global freezing as opposed to global warming?" John said glancing over at Elizabeth.

"Either way, these underground havens built by your ancestors to protect your people's future and safety from the elements are truly remarkable, Governor" she said.

"Yes, despite the cruel weather, we still love our home. I'm sure you love your home no matter what Her failings are," the Governor said.

"Yes, we do," Elizabeth nodded.

"Do you miss your home?" Dolan asked.

"I would be lying if I said I didn't," Elizabeth replied.

"What do you miss about it?" the older woman asked.

"There are many things one thinks of when you are far away from home," Elizabeth replied.

"Loved ones?" the Governor's wife continued inquiring.

"Yes, I do miss my family, but knowing that they are well, puts my mind at ease."

"I see," the old woman said. "I'm sure it also helps that you are very busy as a leader. There is always something or _someone_ keeping you busy. I'm sure."

Elizabeth was starting to feel uncomfortable by the interrogation.

"Of course, as Governor of Feldara, you guys know how busy things can get," John joined in the conversation to give Elizabeth a hand." It's pretty hard to get any downtime let alone worrying about family at home all day."

"You are quite correct, Colonel. As much as we would like to entertain you all day, we must ask for your pardon," the Governor said rising from his seat, "for we must go about our daily tasks. Please feel free to roam around. I believe you've already been shown our various facilities in our first meeting."

John and Elizabeth nodded as the Governor and Dolan prepared to leave the room.

"Please take your time in breaking your fast. I will see you later," Dolan said to Elizabeth and followed his father out.

"Doctor Weir, if you get bored, you can always find me. I'd love to instruct you on making some Feldarian dishes," the Governor's wife said before leaving the room.

"Thank you, ma'am, I will keep that in mind."

"If you two need anything, just ask," the older woman said.

"Thank you, ma'am," John said and let out a breath when she finally exited.

After the Governor's wife had left, John and Elizabeth realized they were the only ones in the dining room.

"So…" John pushed his half eaten bowl of porridge away and twiddled his thumbs on the table. "Do you want to go roam around? Even though this underground city disturbingly reminds me of the Genii underground bunker."

"I can't really say. I was blindfolded the first time I was in the Genii bunker," she said bitterly remembering that negotiation experience. "Besides we've already determined that the Feldarians are not making nuclear bombs."

"Yeah, who needs nuclear bombs when you get the blizzards from hell twice a week?" he asked rhetorically.

* * *

As they wandered around, they found the halls relatively empty.

"I wonder where they all disappeared to," John said peeking through one of the open doors.

"Probably off to the farms," Elizabeth answered.

"Farms?" he looked at her confused. "What do they harvest? Icicles?"

"You'd be surprise what the Feldarians have here."

"I thought they weren't a developed culture"

"They're not. Not in the sense of developed like what we are used to," she explained. "But their ancestors were very advanced and somehow they've kept up with everything."

"So, what? Their civilization is 'frozen' in time? You'd think that without the Wraith in their hair they'd be more advanced."

"True, but their planet became a ball of ice because of technological catastrophes in the past. That is why this underground city exists in the first place. I'm guessing they are a bit timid of new technology. And it's not really necessary when they already have everything they need in this city."

"I guess it's comforting to know some cultures actually learn from their past mistakes," he shrugged.

They continued wandering the halls until they walked passed an opened door that led into an empty spacious room. On the walls were tapestries that depicted sporting events the Feldarians participated in a yearly competition during their harvest season. Along one of the walls was a rack of sticks of different lengths.

"I think this is their gym," Elizabeth said as she walked towards the rack and pulled a pair of short sticks from it.

"They have a gym? Where was I when they gave us the grand tour?"

"You were here physically, but mentally, I can't say."

John narrowed his eyes and looked at Elizabeth as she twirled the sticks in her hand, testing the weight of the sticks in her grip.

He vaguely remembered them passing by this room before, but he might have spent most of that tour watching Dolan flirting with Elizabeth. It was odd watching someone flirt with Elizabeth and even odder when she flirted back. He wasn't jealous or anything. At least that's what he kept telling himself. He assumed her minor flirting was all a part of diplomacy.

The sound of whooshing sticks brought him back, and his eyes trailed over to the sticks in Elizabeth's hands. He observed the way her slender fingers gripped the sticks. It was obvious that she had had some training. But he wondered with whom and when? It seemed to him that she was always in her office. He still couldn't figure out when she got any sleep, let alone time to train in stick fighting.

Elizabeth recognized the perplexed look on John's face and smiled deviously.

"Do you want to spar?" she asked.

"What?" He wasn't sure if he just heard Elizabeth's sparring invitation correctly.

"I've been practicing with Ronon," she said matter-of-factly.

"Ronon?" His eyes furrowed in bewilderment.

"I wanted to get to know him better since he is a member of my flag team, and he spends most of his time in the gym training-"

"So you let him kick your ass? You know there are easier ways to get to know someone better."

"We didn't spar," she chuckled. "He gave me some pointers on self-defense, especially since we are in such high risk jobs. I figured it couldn't hurt, and it's a good workout." She tossed a stick to John.

"But with Ronon?" he repeated. "If you wanted some self-defense pointers, I would be happy to help you out."

"I'm sure you would," she shrugged and tossed him the second stick. "Come on, we have nothing better to do, and we still have half a day to waste."

"But _Ronon_?" Elizabeth ignored his repetition and pulled out another set of short sticks. "I thought you would have trained with Teyla instead."

"Sometimes," she replied, "but recently I've been training with Ronon." She stepped back with her sticks in hand ready to begin.

Heonly stood holding the sticks in his hands looking at her vacuously.

She raised an eyebrow at him and twirled the stick in her right hand a couple more times. "John, humor me. Please?"

"Are you sure?" he asked when he realized she was serious. She nodded. He finally shrugged and held both sticks in his right hand and took a defensive stance and placed his free hand behind his back. "All right," he smiled cockily, "I'll go easy on you."

"You'll regret it," she said with a raised eyebrow and charged toward him.

She swung at him, and he raised his arm to block her attack easily. She swung several more times, but John still blocked and parried each of her blows.

He could see her face start to fluster from their short workout.

"I thought you said I was going to regret going easy on you," he taunted.

He took a swing at her, and Elizabeth quickly blocked his overhead attack. Then she suddenly pivoted back, spun her free arm around, and hit John unmercifully on his rear.

"Ow!" he yelped, rubbing his bottom "Did you learn that from Teyla!"

"I told you that you'd regret it," she smiled triumphantly.

"Okay, that's it." He finally took a stick in each hand and glared at Elizabeth. He could see she was ready to attack him again.

This was another side of Elizabeth he had never seen before. She was physically aggressive and every swing she gave him was backed with strength that matched Teyla's, which was most likely due to training with Ronon. But there was a grace that Elizabeth had in her movements that differed from Teyla.

When he was ready, Elizabeth swung at him again. He quickly blocked her overhead attack and then blocked her lower attack with his other hand.

They each took a step back and began to encircle each other looking into each other's eyes trying to anticipate the other's movement.

Finally, Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and leapt forward to attack him. He parried her attack and swung at her, in which she successfully parried.

They continued to attack and parry each others attacks until Elizabeth took another overhead swing at John, leaving her side open and vulnerable to an attack. John took this opportunity and jabbed a stick at her side.

Realizing her error, Elizabeth quickly used her other stick to block his side attack and spun herself away from him.

When she was a safe distance from him, she jerked her head back to try and flip back her brown curls that were sticking to the side of her face with her sweat. Over the past couple of months her hair had grown longer, and right now she wished she had something to push back her curls as she sparred. Instead, she wiped her forehead with her sleeves and looked over at John who was smiling sheepishly.

"Do you want me to go easy on you now?" he smirked. He was enjoying this aggressive dance that had emerged from their sparring.

"Not a chance," she replied in confidence. "It's a good thing I move fast."

"We'll see about that," he challenged and sprung at her unexpectedly.

Instinctively, she brought a stick up to block his attack. She was about to swing at John with her other hand, but John was quicker and hit her on her calf causing her to fall to her knees.

Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut and kept her head down and waited for the throbbing pain in her calf to dissipate. She opened her eyes again to see John take a step towards her then suddenly take a step back in her peripheral view.

"I'm not falling for that again," he said and swung the sticks in his hand a couple times.

She finally raised her head and glared at him.

"Are you okay?" he asked with concern as she stood up.

"Yes, thank you," she replied, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Hey, I would have come and helped you up. If I was guaranteed I wouldn't have a stick in my face like last time," he said.

"Last time it was just harmless snow, and I wouldn't hit you in the face with this." She held up the stick. "Wouldn't want to damage that pretty face of yours."

"But you don't have a problem with freezing it. So are you ready to stop now?"

"Are you kidding?" she said raising an eyebrow. "I'm just getting warmed up."

"All right, bring it on," he said imitating the infamous beckoning gesture from _The Matrix_.

Elizabeth took John's invitation and rushed towards him.

He was able to parry her first several attacks, but as he deflected another attack, Elizabeth's swift moments disarmed his right hand as she backed him up against a wall. She took another hard swing down at him, but he was able to grab onto the stick and gripped onto it firmly.

"Are you holding a grudge?" he asked as Elizabeth tried to pull her stick from his grasp.

"Why do you say that?" she asked breathlessly.

"Because you're swinging pretty hard this time around," he said and jerked the stick he held out of her grip.

Surprised, Elizabeth lifted the other stick in defense. But John grabbed her other stick, pushed her backwards, and rapidly turned her around. Suddenly she was no longer facing John, but facing the room. She looked down to see that John had managed to turn her body and wrap her arms across her own chest, while he locked his arms over hers to keep them in place. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the stick John had just taken from her being held right below her chin.

"See, I told you. I didn't hold a grudge," she breathed heavily and leaned back against him.

"I guess not," he replied his arms still around her.

The exertion of the fight was welcomed from being inactive for the last few days, but now they were both exhausted and sweaty. Neither of them made a move and remained in the same position listening to each other's heavy breathing.

"That was a good workout," John finally said.

"Yes," she agreed, "one of the best I've had in a while."

"Good to know I'm the best so far," he grinned.

"Don't get cocky now, John. Ronon could still break you with his pinky if he wanted to."

"Look whose arms you're in. I have every right to be cocky right now."

Elizabeth's face grew hot at his comment. She knew he was talking about beating her in the match, but she still couldn't stop the blood rushing to her cheeks.

Before she could tell John to free her, Dolan stepped into the room. John immediately let go of her and stepped away, forgetting that she was still leaning against him. She staggered backwards a little, but managed to regain her footing before falling.

She was about to chide John when she followed his line of sight and saw Dolan at the entrance of the room.

"Dolan," she said slightly embarrassed. She brushed her hand through her unkempt hair and quickly stepped back into her role of Doctor Elizabeth Weir.

"I see you have found use for our recreation room," Dolan said.

"Yes, it is quite nice. We have one similar back at our home," she said.

"I did not know that you were a warrior, Doctor Weir." His tone hinted of his amusement.

"I'm not a warrior at all. We were only…" Her thoughts returned to John having his arms around her, and she felt her cheeks fluster again.

"I was giving Doctor Weir some pointers on self-defense," John inserted.

"From what I can tell, Colonel Sheppard seems to be a good instructor," Dolan said.

"He has his moments," Elizabeth smiled. "So are your daily tasks completed?" She desperately wanted to change the subject.

"Yes, and the day is near ending."

"I don't think I will ever get use to the shorter days here," she said. "The days on Atlantis are much longer."

Dolan smiled, "I came in search for you and the Colonel to see if everything was all right and to tell you supper will be served in a couple hours."

"Everything is well. Thank you for your concern."

"Before supper, I believe you both will be in need of a bath," Dolan said observing their flushed state. "I will have Larin draw a bath for each of you and bring a change of clothes to your rooms."

"Thank you, Dolan," Elizabeth said. "That would be great."

"Nice, room service," John whispered into her ear.

She only rolled her eyes and nudged him to be quiet as they exited the gym after Dolan. A nice warm bath was definitely something she looked forward to at the moment.

* * *

"Doctor Weir?"

"Yes?" Elizabeth replaced the light blue dress laid out on the bed for her and looked in the direction of Larin standing next to the steaming wooden bath tub.

"I shall return later to remove the tub," the woman said.

"Thank you, Larin," Elizabeth said

After Larin exited, Elizabeth dipped her hand in the water to test its warmth. When she found the warmth of the water satisfactory, she started to remove her clothes and tossed them onto the chair next to the tub.

She submersed her body in the warm soothing water and leaned back against the side. She absentmindedly took the cloth and soap provided for her and started to cleanse herself.

It had been a very long time since Elizabeth had taken a bath and this one was much welcomed, especially after the strenuous sparring match she had earlier. She figured her body would probably ache tomorrow, but right now she was in heaven.

She sunk her body lower into the water and leaned her head back, closing her eyes.

There was a light knock on the door.

"Come in," she said, assuming Larin had forgotten something.

She heard the door open and close as her visitor entered. She opened her eyes to see what Larin needed. But to her horror, it was John who had entered the room.

"Oh, my God!" she exclaimed and wrapped her arms over her chest and sunk deeper into the water.

"I- I - I'm sorry," John stuttered and quickly turned around to avert his eyes. "I heard you say 'come in'."

"I- I- I did, but I thought you were Larin," she stammered, feeling her face turn scarlet.

"No, she's in my room preparing the bath. You'd think that their ancestors would have passed on knowledge of plumbing to these people. But I came to see if yours was ready, and obviously it is. And I think mine is ready too… Sorry," he quickly said and exited.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Elizabeth groaned and submerged her head underwater.

* * *

It had been a while since Elizabeth had worn a dress. She wore her Atlantis uniform so often that she had forgotten how simply wearing a dress instantly reminded her of her femininity.

She smoothed the front of her empire waist dress and looked at herself in the mirror. She felt like she had just stepped out of a Regency Period film.

She was combing through her curls as a knock came from her door.

"Come in," she said while struggling with a tangle.

"Are you sure?" John's voice muffled through the door.

Elizabeth chortled to herself and went to open the door for him. "Come in." She opened the door a few inches for him and went back to the mirror to observe the tangle in the back in her hair.

"Wow" was all John said when he entered and saw Elizabeth wearing the Feldarian dress.

She finally turned to face him and had to suppress a giggle. On the contrary, he looked out of place wearing the Feldarian clothing.

"Why do you get to look like Elizabeth Bennet, and I get to look like Farmer John?" he complained.

"You don't look so bad," she assured him.

"I don't look so good either. But you look…"

"I look like a woman who can't untangle her curls," she said facing the mirror again and continued fighting the frustrating tangle.

"No, I was thinking more along the lines of 'Wow'," he said noticing her struggle with the tangle. "Here, let me help." He stepped up behind her and took the brush from her hand.

He took her soft brown hair into his hands and carefully worked through the mildly damp tangles. Her hair gave off a light flowery scent that was pleasing to his senses as he untangled her hair.

Elizabeth stood before the mirror watching him delicately brushing through her hair and smiled.

"Why are you smiling?" His eyes made contact with hers through the mirror's reflection.

Her smile widened. "I never thought an Air Force Colonel would be brushing my hair for me."

"And I never dreamed that I'd become Farmer John." He stroked the brush through her hair one last time before laying it down on the table.

"This is only temporary, John." She turned around to face him. "As soon as the storm ends we can go home."

"And when might this 'soon' be?"

"I don't know. Why don't we go to dinner and catch the latest weather report?"

"Yes, ma'am," he smiled and held his arm for her; and she graciously accepted his invitation.


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N: **I wanted to get this up last week, but school had to get in the way. Anyways I bring you more fluff as ifthis fic wasn't fluffy enough. I just wanted to thank you for all the nice comments... Maybe that is why this fic is getting fluffier. Thanks again!_

**Chapter 6**

"John, I thought you said you wanted to go over your Wraith and Ancient," Elizabeth said to John, who sat with his chin propped on his hand and persisted on drumming his fingers on the table.

"Yeah," he rolled his eyes, "but I forgot that learning was more boring than being bored."

"I'm sorry that I'm boring you, John. But I'm—"

"You're not boring me," he interrupted. "It's the _learning_ part that is boring me."

Elizabeth sighed and leaned back into her chair.

"Elizabeth, we've been stuck here for four days! Four going on five!" His arms flailed dramatically. "The first day was fun. I got to kick your butt," he smirked. "The second day we checked out the underground fields, and I was literally Farmer John for a day. Now the third day—"

"On the third day, you beat up Dolan!" Elizabeth said.

"No, I was going to say you learned how to cook that stew, which was very good by the way. Anyways he asked for some pointers." He crossed his arms over his chest. "I was only helping him out," he said.

"You had him in a headlock!"

"I didn't hurt him."

"Thank goodness you didn't."

"I went easier on him than I did with you. Besides he looked like he could handle it. So... you want to spar again?" he asked with a boyish grin.

"John, you know I can't, especially when I'm wearing a dress like this." She gestured to the green empire waist dress she wore.

John rolled his eyes and tried not to notice the low neckline of her dress. "Teyla always works out in a dress," he said.

"Yes, a 'dress' with slits up to her thighs."

"That's easy. You just need to modify your dress a little."

Elizabeth looked at John. "No."

"You know, we can't stay in your room all day."

"You're right. _We_ can't, but _I_ can. I believe they gave us _two_ rooms."

"Are you kicking me out?" He narrowed his eyes at her.

"No, it's just that you haven't left my side in the last three days. Not to mention, during the last week when we were in the outpost."

"I was near you because you had the portable heater."

"And I thought you were protecting me," she said with feigned disappointment.

"I was. Besides, that's not true. I give you personal space when you take baths and change your clothes. Except for that one time..." he trailed off. "It's just I have no one to talk to here." He lowered his eyes and tried to pout.

Elizabeth gave him a doubtful look. "You never seem to have had that problem before. If I remember correctly you always seem to 'get the girl'."

"I turned them down," he reminded.

"I don't think having nobody to talk to is your problem."

"Oh, then what is my problem, Doctor?"

"Wrong kind of Doctor."

"Aw, shucks." He snapped his fingers.

They sat in silence for a few moments before John decided to interrupt. "So... do you think Rodney and the boys and girls at home are partying like it's 1999?"

Elizabeth looked at him with furrowed brows and rolled her eyes. "It's a good thing we got a message to Atlantis before our radio communications were interrupted by the storm."

"If my parent's called home and said they were stuck indefinitely in a blizzard, I'd party like it's 1999," he said, thinking out loud, obviously in his own world.

"All right," Elizabeth sighed in defeat. "Let's go out for a walk." She stood up from her chair. "And maybe you can apologize to Dolan for assaulting him yesterday."

"I did _not_ assault him."

"And Mara didn't throw herself at you."

"That's different," he scowled.

"Of course."

"You aren't going to let this go, are you?"

"You were the one who brought it up."

"I was doing my job by reporting all the details to you," he pointed out.

"Yes, like a good little soldier." She picked up a shawl that complimented her outfit and wrapped it around her shoulders.

"I could have been king," he said following her to the door.

"But you turned it down."

"Yes, I did," he smiled proudly.

"You're still apologizing to Dolan."

John groaned. Diplomacy was never one of his strengths.

* * *

They wandered into the main hall to find Dolan standing to one side of the room observing the large woven tapestries that adorned the walls. He turned to face them when he heard their footsteps echo in the room.

"Doctor Weir, Colonel," he nodded. "I see you have also grown restless." He eyes glanced over Elizabeth's outfit. "I believe you look even more beautiful this evening, Doctor Weir. I do believe the green brings a lovely sparkle to your eyes."

Elizabeth smiled coyly. "Thank you, Dolan."

John coughed to remind them he was still present. "So... how's the neck?" he asked.

"It is fine. Thank you for inquiring," Dolan replied and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "You have a very firm grip, Colonel. I can see why you were selected as Doctor Weir's protector."

"Yeah, sorry about that; sometimes I get carried away."

"It is even more impressive that you," Dolan returned his attention to Elizabeth, "are a match for Colonel Sheppard."

When she heard the words "match" and "Colonel Sheppard" in the same sentence, Elizabeth's felt her face suddenly grow hot. She wasn't sure why though.

"Don't let that pretty smile of hers fool you. She practices with one of my toughest guys," John said.

"Indeed?" Dolan glanced at Elizabeth and smiled. "Impressive."

"Colonel Sheppard is exaggerating," Elizabeth said giving John a look.

He only clasped his hand behind his back and looked away innocently.

"Colonel Sheppard does not have to exaggerate for me to know you are a very remarkable woman," Dolan said with a smitten smile.

"Now it is you, who exaggerates," she said.

"I doubt it. I'm sure even Colonel Sheppard would agree with me that you are truly one of a kind."

"Yup, she's definitely one of a kind. Elizabeth is just modest when it comes to compliments."

"Do you not get many compliments, Doctor Weir?"

"Er... Have you heard anything about the storm?" she asked, inelegantly changing the subject. From the corner of her eye, she was sure John was about to make a comment about our obviously rocky transition. She swore if he said one word she would make him—

"I am glad to find you all here," said the Governor as he entered the main hall.

Elizabeth breathed a mental sigh of relief and welcomed the interruption. "Governor." She stepped forward to greet him.

"I have just received word from our weather forecaster. You may be pleased to hear that the storm is passing much sooner than we expected. It should be cleared up by tomorrow morning," the Governor informed them. "You are quite fortunate this only lasted several days."

"Five days," John added. "I wonder how long your _bad_ storms are."

"Weeks and sometimes months," Dolan replied.

"Then we are quite fortunate," John said.

"That is wonderful news, Governor," Elizabeth smiled with relief. By tomorrow everything would return to normal again. All the attention she had been receiving from Dolan and John was not unwelcome, but it was flattering yet simulaneously unsettling and tiring. "Again, thank you for your hospitality, Governor."

"This is nothing," the Governor assured them. "We are more than happy to have you as our allies."

"Ditto," John said.

Dolan and his father looked at John in confusion.

"Colonel Sheppard meant to say we could not ask for any better allies than the Feldarians," Elizabeth explained.

"Yes, of course," Dolan nodded. "Shall we go to the dining hall? Dinner should be served shortly." He held his hand out for Elizabeth.

She hooked her arm around Dolan's arm and glanced at John, who feigned indifference. She gave John an amused smile, in which he responded by rolling his eyes and following them out to the dining hall.

* * *

"Come in, the door is unlocked," Elizabeth said.

John peeked his head through the door and found Elizabeth lying on her side on the bed with her eyes partially closed.

"Oh, you're about to go to sleep. I'll let you sleep."

"No, I'm awake," she said and sat up.

"Were you waiting for me?"

She thought for a moment. For the last several days, John had always made an effort to pay her a visit before they called it a night. It surprised her that after a couple days she had gotten accustomed to him visiting her each night to chat before bed. "I guess I was expecting you," she admitted.

John smirked and sat down on the bed next to her. "And to think earlier today you couldn't wait to get away from me."

"That is because you were being exceptionally irritating."

"Me? Irritating? Are you channeling Rodney right now?" he eyed her suspiciously as she giggled at his comment.

"I see you are ready to go home," she said, noting John wearing his black T-shirt and uniform.

"Well, I'm not a big fan of the Uncle Scrooge nightgown. But yours looks nice."

"You think so? Don't you think it's a bit frilly?"

"No, not really" he said absentmindedly and watched her long fingers smooth down the lace collar around her neck.

Elizabeth stopped fidgeting with the lace and looked up to see John staring at her.

John quickly tore his gaze from her when he realized she was returning his gaze. "Um... It's getting late," he said, scratching the back of his head. "I should let you sleep." He quickly got up and strode towards the door.

"John?"

"Yes?" he turned to face Elizabeth.

"Would you—"

"Would I what?"

As he looked at her, she wasn't sure what she wanted to ask him. Did she want to ask him to stay the night like their first night here? But that was unintentional...

She finally sighed and shook her head, "Never mind, good night."

"Right, good night," he said, unsure if he was disappointed or relieved. He stood by the door with his hand still on the doorknob and watched the faint candlelight flicker over Elizabeth's form. If she had asked him to stay, he would have. Instead, he turned the doorknob and opened the door. "If you need anything, you know where to find me."

She smiled and nodded. "I'll see tomorrow, bright and early."

"It's a date," he smirked and waved good night to her one last time before exiting.

Elizabeth sighed and blew out the candle next to her bed and lay down. Tomorrow everything would return to normal.


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N:** This is finally the last chapter. And I just want to thank everyone for all the reviews. They are very appreciated! Thank you! And t__hank yous to SallyLizzie my beta and constant poker and prodder to finish this fic. I guess that goest to LurkerLa as well. _

_I hope you guys enjoyed this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it! Thank you! _

**Chapter 7 **

The weather the next morning was bright and clear. The cold was still biting, but John and Elizabeth were happy to be wearing their own clothes again, and looking forward to finally return to Atlantis' warmer climate and normalcy.

The past week was not what they expected. They both got a glimpse of each others' "other side." John rather liked seeing Elizabeth as a woman and not the stressed out leader of an international expedition team. Though when she was sparring with him... That was another side he never expected to see. In fact, he may have learned more about her this past week than he did in the last two years, and she was perfect.

John began fiddling with the contraptions on his P-90 as he waited for Elizabeth to finish exchanging farewells and good-byes with the Feldarians. He was becoming restless and figured if they did not start moving soon, he would surely freeze in place. Just when it looked like Elizabeth was ready to come to him, Dolan appeared. John rolled his eyes, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and tried to keep himself warm.

He looked around at the area around him. It was completely white and beautiful as the first day they arrived in Feldara. This planet reminded him of the days he spent on Antarctica. Since this was another planet in another galaxy, John decided this planet should've been named Hoth. He took a moment to wonder if there were any Wampas or Tauntauns on the planet.

Moments later, Elizabeth was by his side rubbing her cold hands together ready for their trek through the snow back to the gate.

"Took you long enough," he mumbled and started to trudge through the snow.

"It was no more than five minutes," she said.

"Even with the Force, no one could survive standing out here for more than five minutes," he exaggerated.

Elizabeth shook her head. "All right, Han Solo. Let's head back to the Rebel Base."

"So what did Prince Charming say to you?" he asked nosily.

"Do the words 'personal space' mean anything to you?" she asked, pulling the hood of her jacket over her head.

John thought for a moment. "Nope. So what did Prince Charming say to you?" he asked again.

"What do you think he said to me?" she replied instead.

"I don't know... stuff?" he said bring his hands up to his mouth to blow into them.

"Stuff? Care to elaborate?"

"Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son!" he said imitating Darth Vader's heavy breathing. "Well, not the father and son part, but you know that."

Elizabeth chuckled. "You're just the one man _Star Wars_ show today, aren't you?"

"What? Doesn't it feel like we are in a _Star Wars_ movie?"

"Other than we are in a 'Galaxy far, far away'? No."

"You just lack an imagination."

"You've got enough for the both of us."

"Damn right, sweetheart," John said with a lopsided grin.

"Down the garbage chute, flyboy," she grinned.

"A woman who knows her science fiction... What else don't I know about you?"

Elizabeth only smiled and continued walking until they were about half a klick from the Stargate and noticed a peculiar mound of snow that was in the center of the clearing.

"I don't remember there being a hump in this area, do you?" he asked Elizabeth, who furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head.

John automatically took the lead and led them towards the mysterious mound of snow. "Whatever it is, it got buried really good in the blizzard," he said taking a gloved hand and brushing the snow aside. When he finally uncovered a small portion of the snow, he immediately recognized the sickly green knobby texture and took a step back holding his gun up.

"What is it?" Elizabeth asked concerned.

Suddenly the top of the mound fell inward as the cockpit canopy dissolved.

Elizabeth gasped.

"Looks like they sent someone back to check up on the last rescue team."

"It must have got caught in the blizzard and crashed. Do you think it is still alive?" she asked stepping closer to John.

"Depends how bad it was injured in the crash and how recently it fed before coming out here, and it also depends if he's hibernating."

"Those are a lot of depends. What are we going to do?" she asked.

He signaled for her to stay where she was while he made his way back towards the downed Dart. With his P-90 in defensive position, he peered into the open cockpit and saw the Wraith inside, slumped forward, completely still.

John was not sure if the Wraith had died in the crash or if it was feigning death and waiting for him to come closer. He wasn't going to take a chance and shot a few rounds at the Wraith for any reaction, but it remained lifeless. He continued to cautiously step closer towards the dead Wraith. He noticed that the Wraith's clothes were burnt and bloody and that its mouth was frozen open in an agonizing scream or desperate struggle for air.

"He's dead." John confirmed, lowering his gun, and headed back towards Elizabeth.

"What are we going to do about him?" she asked.

"Nothing," John said as he noticed a couple of snowflakes falling. "We should be getting back to Atlantis before the next snowstorm arrives unless you want to spend another week here."

"One week is more than enough for me, but if _you_ want to stay..." John made a face, and she suppressed a chuckle and continued walking towards the Stargate. "I think the Feldarians are lucky to have Mother Nature to protect them."

"If freezing your ass off is considered protection, then lucky them. I'd still much rather find an Ancient super weapon that works and won't blow up entire solar systems."

"Be patient, John. We'll find something, eventually. Besides, this gives us an excuse to keep exploring Pegasus."

"So that was your plan all along?"

"Not exactly, but having a ZPM does the take pressure off the need to find a super weapon a tad bit. As long as the Wraith don't show up at our door step any time soon, that is."

"Now you're just being optimistic."

"Well, one of us has to be optimistic in this wintry weather."

"I can be optimistic," John retorted.

"Really?" She arched an eyebrow at him. "So could you still be optimistic if I did this?" She threw her arms forward and released something.

Before John realized it, another snowball pegged him square in the chest.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"You're such an easy target," Elizabeth shrugged and smiled prettily.

John wiped the snow from the front of his vest and trudged towards Elizabeth. "Because I'm a nice guy, I won't seek revenge this time."

Elizabeth eyed him skeptically. "I don't believe you."

"But," he held up a finger to show that he was wasn't finished, "The last one to the DHD is a rotten egg!"

Elizabeth was still trying to comprehend John's juvenile suggestion when he started sprinting for the DHD.

He stopped running half way and yelled to her. "You're not even trying!"

She only shook her head and continued towards the Stargate at a normal pace. She decided it was best to let John expend all his excess energy, since he was probably suffering from a minor case of cabin fever.

This unexpected respite was pleasant enough, and being around John all day made it feel more like home than she expected. But she couldn't wait to get back and back to work. When she reached the DHD, John had already dialed the gate and received clearance to enter.

"Ladies first," he said gesturing for her to go before him.

"Thank you."

"But you're still a rotten egg," he whispered into her ear as she walked passed him.

"I may be a rotten egg, but I still get the final word," she said and entered the event horizon.

"Fair enough," he shrugged and followed Elizabeth home.

**-Finis-**


End file.
